Obama calls for drone rules after White House incident
President Barack Obama repeated calls for commercial drone regulation after what he called a “Radio Shack”-quality unmanned aircraft landed on White House grounds earlier this week.
“The drone that landed in the White House you buy in Radio Shack,” Obama said Tuesday in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in India.
Obama said he has spoken with the Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies about how “we are managing this new technology.”
Obama noted that there are “incredibly useful functions” for drones such as possible Amazon deliveries and farmers managing crops, but added, “we don’t really have any kind of regulatory structure at all for it.”
The president’s comments come a day after a recreational drone crashed on the White House grounds Monday. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday there is no “ongoing threat to anybody at the White House” following the incident.
The drone crash is just the latest of several security breaches in and around the White House. In December, a report by an independent panel, announced by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, recommended changes to the Secret Service and to White House security — including a proposed higher fence around the property.
Zakaria asked the president whether he was confident that he understands how to prevent the possibility of a future drone from being armed.
“This is a broader problem. I’ll leave the Secret Service to talk about this particular event,” Obama replied.
The full interview with Obama will air inside CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sunday.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/obama-drone-rules-white-house-crash-114626.html#ixzz3Q2cIQBEq
